Can you point to a single public school in the US that does this? Not being snarky, I would love to have one to show as an example.
My public school had a kitchen ... that it used to heat up pre-packaged deep fried chicken and pizza from Sysco. Sometimes we would get some withered celery on the plate as well.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to think — did you share this just to show handmade food, or is it also healthy food?
1 April seemed a good start, "Oven Fried Chicken Leg", but then I searched for what it meant. It's chicken in breadcrumbs rolled in oil! Are the potatoes and cucumber slices the vegetables that accompany it?
The following day has "Orange Chicken", so chicken covered in a sugary sauce.
"Pork Carnitas Tacos" sounds good. But then "Churro"?!
"Philly Flatbread" — essentially pizza, which is an option every day anyway.
Followed by "Chicken Nachos with cheese sauce" (10 April), "Popcorn Chicken Bowl" (22nd), etc.
Full credit to them if they're preparing it all from scratch, and most of it I'd be pleased to try if I visit the USA, but it's a lot of fried or high-fat food to be serving every day at school.
The obvious difference is there's no daily pizza/hot dogs/burger options, but looking at each week I suspect they're limited to one fried dish per week or two fried sides.
It seems the food is partially prepared in a large kitchen, and then sent to the schools for "final preparation" and serving.
("Pork and roe deer meatloaf", "pheasant stew with bacon", "sushi bowl with baked salmon", they have better food than my work canteen.)
Our enthusiasm for food translates directly into a better experience for K-12 lunch students: meals made with fresh, high-quality ingredients. Dishes prepared from scratch. Menus and display cooking sessions inspired by our Chef Council’s world travels. Plenty of healthy options, supplemented by nutrition information and education.
In other words, we want your students to eat the best food possible, now and for life.
CLASSIC CAFE STATION
"The cycle-menu entrée choices are made from scratch daily, offering a minimum of two selections every day. This station is available for students to choose from on a daily basis."
PIZZA AND PANINI STATION
"A daily Panini or pizza choice. Taher’s Signature Pizza starts with a specially formulated crust. After smothering it with our zesty, old-world recopy pizza sauce and fresh mozzarella, we finish it off with a variety of toppings."
FRESHWICH®
"Deli Sandwich Station offering made-to-order fresh deli sandwiches and wraps, on choice of bread, served with all pickles, peppers, sauces, condiments, or simply tacos, burritos, wraps, ets."
HOT SANDWICH & INTERNATIONAL GRILL
"Presenting burritos, tacos, wraps, burgers, chicken, fish, and other popular items."
GRAB-N-GO
"Our A la Carte offerings will include healthier food, snacks and beverages selections, including our exciting and delicious line of Grab-n-Go products; made fresh, they are also available for students on the run Items offered include freshly-made salads, sandwiches, wraps, and homemade soups."
FRUIT AND VEGETABLE BAR
"An accompaniment to every meal. This station utilizes self-service and offers students a selection of fresh and canned fruits, and fresh vegetables."
It's a tiny school district - 3200 people in the town. I'd guess it's much easier to cook fresh on that scale vs one of the suburban/urban mega-districts? Either way, it is nice to see some places still value nutritious meals for kids.
Right, and my original comments about plenty doing it was sort of based on this idea that there are lots of small districts out there which I assume could be similar no?
So while the number of kids being served healthier from scratch cooked food might be low, the total number or percentage of schools might be a lot higher.
I realize that it's more important to consider the percentage of kids than the percentage of schools, but my initial comment was just a simple take on this as in there are probably a lot of schools that still cook their food.
Yea, I was under the impression that Sysco absolutely dominated the market for providing cheap, ultra-processed "food-like product" to schools and prisons.
The food is one of many aspects where it's hard to tell the difference between a US school and prison.
Sysco dominates the commercial food service market across all tiers.
Hint for anyone running a small commercial kitchen and considering buying ingredients from Sysco: unless something has changed in the last 20 years or so (I doubt it), they will completely screw you over if you don’t negotiate pricing effectively. If a service like Instacart undercuts your commercial prices, you’re doing it wrong.
You may be interested in what Brigaid is doing. They help schools transform to this style of food prep. They are having success in some areas at least.
Many still have the kitchens, but the two in my hometown rarely cook from scratch anymore. I live in a small 5k person town in North Carolina, and recently got involved with the school PTO. And the cafeteria is basically just heating up premade meals these days.
>Plenty of schools in the US have kitchens and cook their foods from scratch...
Well, plenty of schools in the US used to cook food from scratch! They even had awesome cookbooks provided by the US government![1] (btw, it includes the recipe for that bomb-ass school pizza they used to have in the 80s and 90s! Credit to Max Miller from Tasting History for tracking it down.) That started getting privatized in the late 90s. Now they mostly just heat up things.
